Windows

If there's any company that's going to have a field day with Microsoft's controversial new Windows 8, it's Stardock. Case in point: Start8, a free beta program the company markets that replaces the "missing" Start Menu on the Windows 8 explorer desktop taskbar.

Microsoft's new operating system has received mixed early reviews. Get past the missing Start menu and the 'ribbonized' File Explorer, though, and you'll likely find a faster OS that should make workers more productive -- especially if you give them new Windows 8 tablets.

Bad news for cynical tech bloggers, grenade-lobbing Internet trolls, and everyone else who's been attacking Windows 8 for the sheer thrill of sport: I've been using a Windows 8 tablet for over a week now, and the experience has been a revelation.

hMail Server (Windows only) comes in first, Citadel (Linux only) is a close second.

Razor-thin, lightweight Ultrabooks are all the rage in Windows laptops now. Though most Ultrabooks are designed more for the living room than for the boardroom, business customers don't have to feel left out in the cold. We've rounded up five excellent Ultrabooks that combine sleek designs with business-class features and performance.

iTunes is a good way to manage your iOS mobile devices, but it's not without its limitations. Chief among those limits is how iTunes operates in its own closed environment, behind closed doors. Enter Macroplant's iExplorer 3 ($35, free feature-limited demo). This software works both with and instead of iTunes, offering you more freedom in how you manage the contents of your iPhone, iPod, or iPad from your PC.

RecImg Manager is a Metro interface and manager for the new Windows 8 recimg.exe command line utility and the recovery images it creates. Unlike full images, recovery images don't contain or documents, user settings, etc.; these are left alone when a recovery image is created or restore. However, they do contain everything else, and with no differential or incremental options, they are generally quite large.

The two faces of Windows 8 -- the Desktop and the interface formerly known as Metro -- still coexist uneasily in the final RTM version of the OS. But some of Windows 8's native apps are great.

It's lacking enough functionality to make it worth waiting for subsequent versions, Jonathan Hassell says, unless you're building Azure apps right now.

Microsoft will include antivirus in Windows 8 for the first time in the history of Windows. But will this software--the new version of Windows Defender--provide adequate protection against viruses, spyware, and other malware? Let's take a closer look at what Windows Defender provides, and whether its features are enough to keep you safe.

With the latest iteration of Office, Microsoft pledges to bring the documents and services you need to run a business to any screen you choose, from a PC to a touch-enabled Windows Surface tablet or Windows 8 Phone. After using the Office 2013 preview suite on a Windows 8 tablet, we are impressed by many of the steps Microsoft has taken to make its Office franchise touchscreen ready and cloud friendly.

The line between Web apps and desktop applications grows ever blurrier. Chrome OS, for example, puts the browser front and center and makes it the core of an entire operating system. Also, in recent years simple smartphone apps have really come into their own, with millions of users and developers in two thriving ecosystems (iOS and Android). And now, it's the desktop's turn: Pokki is a Windows application that tries to make Web apps as easy to use as desktop apps and as discoverable and fun to install as smartphone apps.